Designed in Glasgow and made in Scotland, Ocean Plastic Pots works to remove plastic pollution from the ocean and coastline and create sustainable and useful products, turning the negative into a positive for the environment. The pots themselves, whilst durable and built to last, can also be recycled again, creating a circular economy and growing awareness of plastic pollution. It is estimated that 8 million tons of plastic enter our oceans every year.
Since being founded in 2020, the business has partnered with several stakeholders and created a distinctive brand focused on the environment to drive the initiative forward. Now employing a small team of talented individuals, the business has grown from concept into an award-winning conservation success story. Ocean Plastic Pots won the first ever “Sustainable Garden Product of the Year Award” at the RHS Flower Show in 2021 and was awarded a Points of Light Award by the UK Prime Minister for sustainability and innovation.
Ocean Plastic Pots is inspired by founder, Ally Mitchell, with his passion and determination to help turn the tide on the volume of plastic found in our seas, causing grave harm to the future of our planet.
As a commercial deep-sea diver having worked across the world, Ally has first-hand experience of the detrimental impact plastic waste is having on our oceans and marine life. In December 2019 a whale washed up on Luskentyre Beach on the Isle of Harris. It had 100kg of rope, fishing net and plastic debris inside it. Only three months later, Ally found himself working as a diver on the salvage of a cargo ship the MV Kaami. The ship was carrying 1937 tons of palletised refuse-derived fuel (shredded plastic) to be incinerated. The ship had hit a reef only 20km from the very same beach where the whale had washed up. This job was the catalyst behind Ocean Plastic Pots.
With no manufacturing experience, Ally undertook over six months research with basic techniques to start making plant pots from plastic he picked off the beach, as well as discarded ropes and fishing net. It was trial and error until Ally finally produced a pot made with 100% waste plastic.
Ocean Plastic Pots undertake regular collection programmes and from the beginning, Ally would photograph the plastic he collected in situ on the beaches, with his wellies as a point of reference for verification.
In April 2022, 26 volunteers organised by Caledonian Horticulture spent four days on the Island of Ulva near Mull, living in a bothy without electricity to remove approximately five tons of material from the little island, which has a population of seven.
In 2021, they recycled all the rope and fishing net collected from Edinburgh to the Borders for World Ocean Clean Up Day. In 2023, working together with The Scottish Islands Federation Marine Litter Working Group, Skye Beach Cleans and The Scottish Coastal Clean Up, they recycled rope and fishing nets from six Scottish Islands in a pioneering first of its kind project that has been supported by the Ocean Recovery Project, part of Keep Britain Tidy.
With a company ethos to give something back, Ocean Plastic Pots has sponsored a Minkie Whale called Knobble through Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust.